Bay 12 Games Forum

Your method dropped boulders on it.  While this is a legitimate way to kill things, it is not a cave in, and is not half as deadly as one.  You need to drop at least one solid block of natural wall.  Cave ins create cave in dust, which will probably suck in your miner if you drop it by mining, use a lever activated support.  A cave in will fall through a floor with no wall beneath it.  This allows you to do all the digging and prep work without your dwarves ever being exposed to the FB.

First, Dig out your block (side view):
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# ___
# # #
#___#
__F_#
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Then, build a support, and link it to a lever:
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# I_ò
# # #
#___#
__F_#
#####
Channel the access floor that is supporting the block.  The block should now have one open space all around it in a 3x3x3 cube except the support on top:
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# I ò
# # #
#___#
__F_#
#####
PULL THE LEVER!
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#   ó
# # #
#___#
__F_#
#####
Inspect the results:
#####
#   ó
#   #
#___#
__#_#
#####
Notice that the fallen block seals the hole that it punched through, so if the FB survives or there are more threats behind it, your fortress is not exposed.

The lever is drawn next to the hole for simplicity.  If you make it that close, cave in dust might take the lever puller with it (though he will probably wander off to do something else before the signal goes through, but still, put it 5 or 6 tiles away.

You can drop any sized block, all the way up to a magma piston, but a single wall is enough to kill anything (must be natural not constructed, cast obsidian is fine). 

Note that you must pin the FB in one location in order to hit it.  There are many ways to do this, but apparently you managed that part fine.  If you want to get it when it is going through a corridor and can't aim well enough (or smash a whole group of demons all at once) consider dropping a larger slab of walls using the same procedure.

Top left is favored in almost every situation where the game chooses between a number of otherwise equal tiles on the same z level, especially with pathfinding and job selection.  Place a square of channels, and dwarves will almost always start at the top left if it is not blocked.  Same with engravings, and as mentioned, placement of items in stockpiles, positions of animals in pastures, selection of items for hauling, and lots of other stuff.  Dwarves prefer to mine and build from the north west (though that preference used to be much more rigid in older versions).  I think I've even seen weird behavior oriented around the northwest corner in the movement of fluids in partially full reservoirs.

I often try to place stockpile rooms oriented south east of the access point (door or stairwell or workshop), to minimize hauling distance if dwarves put things in their preferred locations.  40.x, maybe the job priorities update, has relaxed that behavior with stockpiles.  They still prefer northwest, but I have seen them put stuff in the south end of stockpiles if that is the side closest to the door (though they certainly don't always do that...).

Being able to designate tiles for mining as they are being mined would be nice too, especially for damp or warm tiles.  It would also have been convenient for veins before automining was added, and is still useful in cases where it can't be trusted, like mining veins that penetrate the caverns/bodies of water/magma.

It would be nice if it weren't default (maybe press d or q to enter menu and pause, press space or maybe alt + space to unpause within the menu), since the squad menu being unpaused by default always trips me up.

On the subject of tents, they don't count as indoors.

Interesting.  So, correct me if I'm wrong, but cave adaptation is prevented by being outdoors, regardless of lighting, while normal roofed constructions are light but indoors, so do not prevent cave adaptation.  Therefor, tents are a potential way (maybe the only way) to make a secure, roofed (they're roofed right?  I think I remember them having roofs) outdoor meeting area to prevent cave adaptation.

The problem is, maces tend to deal bruising damage over a larger area.  This stacks up real quick, so you might get Bruise X 5 then the injured part explodes into gore, and this is an excellent way to deal with zombies.  But against living opponents, armored or not, warhammers often deal disabling blows on the first strike.  A broken leg makes you fall over, a broken arm makes you drop your weapon, a broken head is often an instakill.  These blows may not pulp the body beyond reanimability, but they certainly reduce the ability of a living opponent to fight back.  During the five or so bruising strikes a mace is likely to get before doing crippling damage, the enemy can be counterattacking.

I mean, maces aren't bad.  I am fond of them, and often use them, if I have spare recruits with the skill, but they tend to get fewer kills than my hammerdwarves, and seem to be more vulnerable since they leave their opponents in fighting condition for longer.  Still, legendary macedwarves with full kit will tear through goblins like nobodies business.  But hammers are better.

EDIT:  In my observation, legendary macedwarves have fair odds of getting "explodes into gore" reactions on  the first strike, and break more bones.  At  this skill level, they are pretty brutal.  However, for lesser skilled dwarves maces seem to do a lot of bruising, while warhammers work well even at lower skill levels.

Derinkuyu, probably, which was mentioned in this thread.  Derinkuyu is pretty cool and pretty dwarfy, for instance check out this door.  It's basically a huge millstone that can be rolled out of a slot in the wall to rest in a notch on the other side, blocking the door.  The hole is a combination arrow slit/peephole/handle.  As was mentioned, it was more secure than secret.  Eastern central turkey (cappadocia) has a number of underground cities and is littered with cave tombs and small outposts.  Check out this picture (very high resolution), I think I count 15 separate cave complexes on the spires and cliffsides (I believe they're tombs, but I'm not sure).  Those look a lot like some of the stuff I like to make in DF when I get a good cliff or spire.

EDIT: Two maps of Derinkuyu: One, Two.  Looks very dwarfy indeed, especially with the underground well (doubles as ventilation shaft and surface well, I imagine it was a bit of a hole in the security).  The apparently had an underground winery, though presumably not an underground vineyard.  Maybe if they were invaded during harvest they could hide underground with their grapes and finish up with crush?  Some of the cities even had interconnecting tunnel/roads, potentially miles long, a la DF dwarves.

This is a known issue.  If you are building a fort below water level and plan to reclaim (pretty much inevitable), build a drainage system into your fortress s it can be safely reoccupied.

It probably didn't help that "eugenics" was in the thread title...